Personal and business communication methods range from hardcopy written and printed items, voice communication systems, and a variety of electronic methods. Common among existing communication methods is the lack of tools for users to manage their inbound and outbound communications. Existing communication methods also share in common privacy problems related to the distribution by a communications recipient of the personal addresses, telephone numbers, system IDs, etc. of communications participants.
Ultimately, all communications consist of a communication sender and one or more recipients. Each communication method provides for addressing, initiating transmission, transmission, and delivery of, a communication. Some communication methods also provide for denial of delivery, verification of delivery, and the ability to respond to a communication.
There are various methods of two-way and one-way communication methods. A sequence of sending and receiving communications between two or more parties can be accomplished using the various communication methods with differing levels of effectiveness and ease of use, depending on the method used. For example, a two-way conversation via telephone happens more quickly than via electronic mail or pager.
One communication method is the existing wired telephone system. The existing wired telephone system consists of interconnected networks operated and maintained by commercial and government entities throughout the world. Standard telephones are very simple communication devices and the supporting telecommunication networks offer very few services. Beyond the ability to connect calls, common features available as standard or options include: three way calling, call waiting, caller id, call blocking, call forwarding, and return call (sometimes referred to as *69). In the industrialized nations of the world telephone communication is a standard communication method.
Cellular telephones provide another method of communication. Cellular telephone use has grown dramatically in recent years. The early analog cell phones and accompanying networks offered limited quality and features, and usage costs were dramatically higher than standard wired phones. Cellular telephones and their networks offer convenience and features beyond traditional phones, often including electronic phone books, call logging, email and SMS (Short Message Service) capability, application capabilities via WAP (Wireless Area Protocol), and Internet access via small format web browsers. Most cellular systems offer these extended capabilities along with the wired telephone system features as discussed above.
Originally a business tool, voice messaging is another communication method that has grown beyond the business environment and into most homes in North America and many other parts of the world. Voice messaging or voice mail can be implemented with stand alone “answering machine” devices typically used in homes, can be implemented with a commercial phone system, or can be offered as part of a telephone carrier service package. These systems store audio messages which may later be retrieved by the target recipient or recipients. Some enhanced systems provide functionality to forward messages to others, reply to a message, or deliver the message to an external system such as email.
Instant messaging (IM) is a relatively new communication method that leverages the Internet infrastructure to communicate primarily by text. The most popular instant messaging systems include: AOL Instant messenger, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, and ICQ. These systems represent many millions of instant messaging users throughout the world. The technology derives its name from the basic capability in which a user can send another (a recipient) a simple text message which instantly appears on the recipient's IM interface. The messages are usually displayed in a scrolling interface where the last message sent by any party is displayed at the bottom and previous messages are displayed above. Each message begins with an indicator of who sent the message, typically an alias name chosen by the user to represent themselves in the IM application. Other features of IM now include the ability to format text in a variety of sizes, fonts, and colors, the ability to block individual IM users from sending messages to an individual recipient, the ability to transfer files, and the ability to use a computer microphone and speaker to accomplish voice communications from the IM interface.
Electronic mail (email) is a common computer-based communication method. Email enables users to exchange text messages, enhanced HTML formatted messages, and files. Email applications have grown in complexity to offer contact management capabilities, scheduling, and rules for handling inbound and outbound messages.
Multi-party conference calling is a popular business communication method that enables more than two participating phone connections to interact via voice. Conference calls are offered by telecommunication service providers or provided as a feature of commercial telephone systems. Typically, conference callers dial a specific telephone number to join a call, and must enter a valid ID code to authorize connection to a particular call. Service providers sometimes offer options to have the call monitored by an operator who will announce callers as they enter and deal with any questions regarding the service or sound quality issues. Depending on the service, conference calls can be made spontaneously or may require lead time to schedule at a specific date and time.
A predecessor to the conference call, a party line call offers an open line for either a fixed number or unlimited number of callers to participate in a group call. A party line is a fixed telephone number, usually without any access restrictions which is available 24 hours a day. Party lines may or may not be monitored by a managing party and at times have one or more “leaders” who serve as experts or guide the content of the call.
Numeric and alphanumeric paging devices provide other common communication methods. Many pagers in use offer one-way communication in that they receive but cannot send messages. New paging devices offer two-way communications via fixed choice responses, or via a data input device such as a keyboard. Most pager systems can also receive messages originated from a web page, software application, or email.
Interactive television (ITV) is an emerging new communication technology combining traditional broadcasting with interactive capabilities similar to computers. Large media, cable, and technology companies such as AOL/Time Warner, AT&T, Cox, Comcast, General Instruments, and Microsoft have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in developing pilot and limited deployment systems. The functionality offered varies by provider but common features include: ability to browse the web and send email, ability to purchase pay-per-view content, and ability to interact with programming and advertising content.
Similar to ITV, satellite systems, and particularly the generation of DSS based systems, are broadcast technology offerings which are evolving to two-way interaction. Current DSS systems offer limited two way communications using a modem built into the control unit which can call the satellite provider to request pay-per-view programming.
Short messaging service (SMS) is an emerging communication technology generally related to digital cellular telephones. It can also be implemented in non-cellular devices. SMS can deliver short text-only messages between compatible devices. It has become popular with some cellular users, particularly in Europe. SMS users utilize a cellular telephone number as the address to which to send the communication. SMS systems are usually equipped with an email gateway in order to interact with email users on the Internet.
The oldest form of distance communication is the delivery of written documents and packages via postal mail and delivery services. Common to all civilized areas of the world, this communication method is the most pervasive.
Video conferencing was an evolution of the conference call and is a communication method that has grown in business use over the years, particularly as an alternative to travel. Standards for video conferencing exist to ensure compatibility between hardware and software manufacturers. Many systems are based on proprietary hardware while others use computers and common input and output devices. The basic functionality of these systems is to simultaneously transmit video and audio between two or more conference locations. The bandwidth required for video conferencing usually demands ISDN or higher speed connections. Conference locations exist in companies, government agencies, hotels, office suites, and business services companies such as Kinko's.
Similar to video conferencing, video telephones provide a way for users to place video and voice calls to another party. The video telephone uses standard telephone line connections and can only connect two users. These units also provide standard telephone capabilities.
Other types of Internet-enabled video and audio devices such as web cameras allow either audio, video, or both to be simultaneously transmitted from one user to one or more compatible receiving devices or standard computers with compatible decoding, display and audio systems. Some units of this type may be directly connected to a telephone or other network connection for operation, although most require a computer connected to the public Internet or private network to function.
New types of multimedia communication applications have been developed to leverage the capabilities of the public Internet. These applications allow teams of disparate individuals to collaborate using combinations of video, audio, still images, document sharing, live scanning of documents, white boarding, and other dynamic image, video, and audio capabilities. These applications vary in features and compatibility. This growing segment of communication applications provides complex levels of communication not available before.
The facsimile was a significant leap for business communication, second only to the telephone itself. Although use of the facsimile has declined as email has grown in popularity, the fax is still a widely used method to transfer documents.
Existing communication methods lack of tools for users to manage their inbound and outbound communications, and to manage privacy of personal addresses, telephone numbers, system IDs, etc.
For example, in the case of telephone calls, a call recipient has no way of controlling parties that can call them. The recipient has no way to control when they are willing to receive calls. And the recipient has no way to route calls to a particular phone number based on the identification of the party that is calling and the current date and time.
Existing communication management methods provide, for example, ways to block a caller. Caller blocking is based on the source phone number from which a call is made to a recipient phone number. However, call blocking is limited in that the calling party need only change the phone from which they call to get through the call blocking. A more comprehensive communications management approach is needed.
Existing communication methods offer only limited means of initiating a communication session. In typical existing communications systems, the calling party is required to obtain a unique “address” of a called device. For example, in the case of a telephone call, the calling party must obtain a telephone number of the call recipient in order to initiate a call. Initiating a communication session in existing communication systems requires the initiator, either human or automated system, to know the communication address of one or all parties. This arrangement risks privacy of those communicating, limits the ability to manage transmission and reception between two or more parties, and requires a third party initiator, either a person or automated system, to know the communication addresses of each participant in the communication.